Looking for a new home (site) for my league (1 Viewer)

[dunecats]

My league has been with Fanstar for... oh, I don't know how long, as I inherited the role of commish a few years ago. Fanstar just isn't meeting the needs of my league any more, and I feel like I need to find a new host for my league.

I've played in a work league on NFL.com last year and so far this year, so I have some experience with that platform. But I was wondering how some of the other sites stack up.

I've found some people touting myfantasyleague.com, and I'm open to moving to a pay site (since we were already dealing with a pay site before). But I get the feeling a lot of my owners would prefer a site with better aesthetics right out of the box. I'm also not sold on the idea that I have to download a separate program on my PC to get a better live score tracker.

A site that supports Head Coaches is a plus (yeah, we're one of those crazy leagues).

Something I really want is a site that provides a way to see how players in a specific NFL game are doing according to my league's scoring system. For example, I don't want to have to check 3 different league games to find out that Peyton Manning has 25 points, CJ Anderson has 6 points, and D. Thomas has 13 points. I want to be able to see them all in one spot (not to mention unrostered players that I can't see from any of my league's games). I haven't found a way to see that on NFL.com.

 

[joyride964]

I used to do Yahoo but I think they fell off the Boat. My league has been using ESPN for about 4 years and we all love it. I can watch my Team on the "FantasyCast" and it updates everytime your player does something. I think you should give it a try at least.

 

[Jack White]

MyFantasyLeague is the gold standard. Well worth it for each guy to chip in 8-10 bucks.

 

[nastynate]

ESPN has a nice UI and access via App/web app, but the lack of customization is pretty terrible.

I'm going to check out MyFantasyLeague.

 

[streamkeeper]

You sound like I did. We just migrated away form CBS after 15 years. We went with MFL. Given the customization options available, there was no competition. We are a salarycap/auction league. CBS lacked horsepower.

We really, really like the trash talking and stat comparisons that MFL gives us.

Like you, my league mates were a little disappointed with the curb appear, so we chipped in a purchased a skin from DA Grafix.

You can check it out here;

http://www27.myfantasyleague.com/2015/home/61146#0

If you have specific questions I'll do my best to answer them although I am really a MFL virgin by comparison to other here...

 

[Manster]

MyFantasyLeague is the gold standard. Well worth it for each guy to chip in 8-10 bucks.

Agreed. I like MFL much more than the other sites I've used including yahoo, nfl

 

[NYRAGE]

RT Sports looks nicer than MFL, but MFL is so much more customizable. I used to hate CBS Sportsline. Yahoo seems average. I hate how Yahoo always changes its draft interface and not necessarily for the better. I've never done an ESPN league, but I like their drafting interface the best.

If it's a simple league then any of those will work. If you want flexibility and the ability to do almost anything, then MFL is the site to use.

 

[Flying Elvis]

I've used MFL, CBS, and Yahoo, and currently have one $$ league still on each.

MFL - has the most back end abilities. Customization of scoring, layout, reporting, and all the tools you need for the not-so-cookie-cutter things your league may do. It is, however, outrageously outdated. If you think your owners will hate a site that is not aesthetically pleasing, they'll hate MFL even more than you think. It's a stone age tool that everyone touts so MFL just keeps getting away with an unacceptably ancient interface. The way they've added all the awesome tools, options, and functions gives the whole site what I call a "Fun House" feel, where menus and functions are in odd spots and/or don't do quite what you expect, often making things more complicated than they need to be. It is a nice price point, though, and still a favorite for it's incredible depth.

CBS - sleek and has enough scoring options to handle just about anything you want to do. Same goes for salary caps, contract, etc., though I've never used these functions, so can't say just how smoothly things go. They seem to "enhance" things every year which, to me, always makes things less obvious. It's a clear case of not knowing when to leave the interface alone so we don't have to relearn the damn thing every year. There's literally no way I'd ever take a league I run there, though. Their price is just dumb.

Yahoo - they can do most things but it's clearly built for the casual experience. Free is good, but you get what you pay for when you find you can't even access your league for the entire off season. I hate it for that, and I keep finding odd handling of teams, owners, etc. in my second year back to Yahoo as commissioner after a 5 year break. They are light years ahead of where they were when I left but I find it unacceptable that the league site is just ... gone ... for 4-6 months. My relatively casual owners don't seem to care, though.

Ultimately, you'll likely find no site is perfect. Make sure your owners are prepared to deal with some growing pains and potentially try a few sites over the next few seasons to find what works best for most.

 

[RushHour]

I used to do Yahoo but I think they fell off the Boat. My league has been using ESPN for about 4 years and we all love it. I can watch my Team on the "FantasyCast" and it updates everytime your player does something. I think you should give it a try at least.

My league just moved from ESPN to NFL.com and it's been a disaster honestly. NFL.com is more customizable but I really miss the ESPN fantasycast, which is fantastic. I just assumed all sites would have something like the fantasycast but they really don't.

I've used MFL in a couple of dyno leagues and it's ok but really ugly. I've used Yahoo for basketball and it's pretty good but basic. I think I'll push for a move back to ESPN because the real time experience on Sundays just seems to be a cut above. Just my opinion.

 

[habsfan]

CBS - sleek and has enough scoring options to handle just about anything you want to do. Same goes for salary caps, contract, etc., though I've never used these functions, so can't say just how smoothly things go. They seem to "enhance" things every year which, to me, always makes things less obvious. It's a clear case of not knowing when to leave the interface alone so we don't have to relearn the damn thing every year. There's literally no way I'd ever take a league I run there, though. Their price is just dumb.

Yahoo - they can do most things but it's clearly built for the casual experience. Free is good, but you get what you pay for when you find you can't even access your league for the entire off season. I hate it for that, and I keep finding odd handling of teams, owners, etc. in my second year back to Yahoo as commissioner after a 5 year break. They are light years ahead of where they were when I left but I find it unacceptable that the league site is just ... gone ... for 4-6 months. My relatively casual owners don't seem to care, though.

I have used Yahoo for 7 years and my impression of them is pretty aligned with how you feel about CBS. They tend to make changes every year, some moving it forward, others backward. Each year the old saying, "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product" applies more and more. I've never felt more like a product.

This year I have added social tools (forum and chat) independent of Yahoo because:

1. They aren't good at it (and clearly don't want to be).

2. They wipe the site every year; and

3. It might make it easier to change hosts (being able to focus solely on the best draft tools, live tracking and "general accounting").

I am kicking some new tires (hosting wise).

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

Has no one said Flea Flicker yet? Try Flea Flicker. Pretty simple UI, and very customizable - almost as much as MFL.

Also free.

 

[pinequick]

I heard people on this message board forever slobber all over MFL and talk about how great they were, so much so that I rolled my eyes after a while. Then my league went there. They were right.

The layout isn't that slick (aesthetically), but it's totally customizable and the price is a great deal for what you get. Add me to the list of strong recommends for MFL.

 

[shadyridr]

Yeah i love mfl. Not the prettiest site but definitely the best

 

[Uncle Grandpa]

Unless you need a lot of customization, ESPN is the way to go. Free, user friendly, and excellent phone app. I only use MFL in instances when the league's rules can't be implemented in ESPN.

 

[RushHour]

Unless you need a lot of customization, ESPN is the way to go. Free, user friendly, and excellent phone app. I only use MFL in instances when the league's rules can't be implemented in ESPN.

Yeah I forgot to mention the ESPN phone app. It's functionality is better than any of the others I've used.

 

[Jack White]

You sound like I did. We just migrated away form CBS after 15 years. We went with MFL. Given the customization options available, there was no competition. We are a salarycap/auction league. CBS lacked horsepower.

We really, really like the trash talking and stat comparisons that MFL gives us.

Like you, my league mates were a little disappointed with the curb appear, so we chipped in a purchased a skin from DA Grafix.

You can check it out here;

http://www27.myfantasyleague.com/2015/home/61146#0

If you have specific questions I'll do my best to answer them although I am really a MFL virgin by comparison to other here...

That skin is rough on the eyes. The grey text on the black background is really tough to read.

For guys who use MFL: if you don't like the color scheme of your league, get your commissioner to enable each franchise to choose its own skin. There are about 100 to choose from.

 

[Phantom Knight]

If you need a lot of customization or year-round access, MFL is the answer. MFL is butt ugly out of the box. The ugliest there is. If you are willing to roll your sleeves up and/or pay someone to do it for you, you can have a completely customized and gorgeous site.

If your league is fairly standard and if you can live with the league being offline from the Superbowl until May/June, then Yahoo would get my vote over the following:

• CBS Sportsline or ESPN. Yahoo is free but even if it were not, I would pay for it before I would pay for these two.
• FleaFlicker. This is another free player. Also it supports a few league options that Yahoo would not, but I find it also to be, well, more amatuerish. I would choose Yahoo hands down here as well.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind when considering Yahoo:

• The yearly shutdown window is narrowing. It used to be down until August, then July, then June and I think this year it re-opened in May.
• Yahoo is improving year by year in its support for keeper/dynasty leagues. Each year there is less off-line/manual work for commissioners. But there is still a little ways to go.
• There is no bulletin board/file uploading. I find this surprising because Yahoo has offered these things for years in their forums communities.

 

[dkp993]

Have run through just about every site option to appease my league over the past few years. We all liked ESPN the best but out grew the lack of customization. CBS is an absolute rip off for the price. MFL is great but league hated the old school look and I never invested the time into looking for someone to design site there for us. Yahoo was ok but not great. Finally we found Fantrax this year and it seems to be a combo of all of them. It's free (though there is a pay upgrade that's looks great for dynasty leagues so we'll likely upgrade), the UI isn't super oldschool and the customization is MFL level. So far everyone is happy, which trust me with my group is not easy!

 

[shadyridr]

How much is it to have someone customize your mfl site?

 

[Polish Hammer]

How much is it to have someone customize your mfl site?

This. And what is the process? I like the functionality of MFL so far (first year using it) but it does look like a third grader threw up on his art project. My leaguemates are complaining about it b/c we've been with CBS for about a decade before going to MFL.

 

[habsfan]

How much is it to have someone customize your mfl site?

This. And what is the process? I like the functionality of MFL so far (first year using it) but it does look like a third grader threw up on his art project. My leaguemates are complaining about it b/c we've been with CBS for about a decade before going to MFL.

I just took a quick look but assuming site owners can upload custom css and template files (either themselves or via MFL), any competent web developer could spruce it up to your liking. There are paid services I take it but nowadays most people "know a guy who knows a guy"...